CompassUSA provides a consulting, mentoring/coaching, and facilitating service for leaders
who desire to obtain/maintain high performance. Services focus on developing/manifesting personal high character, and
on leader/organization best practices that build trust and stimulate high performance in individuals, teams, and the
organization.

An organization of continuing high performance is first established by the character of its leaders, which creates
a culture marked by trust, innovation, and a need to continually succeed.

Leadership behavior , communications, and the corresponding organizational practices create an environment for
employees to manifest trust in one another and extend trust to customers, prospects, vendors, and partners resulting
in enthusiastic partners, loyal customers, and a great marketplace reputation… high performance.

The leadership team must consider all relationships that affect the organization’s performance including staff,
customers, vendors, partners, and the public.

CompassUSA will coach and mentor the senior team members and then support the transfer of both, a character
ethics code for everyone in the organization to understand and follow, and leadership practices that support high
performance throughout.

Leadership is about motivating others to cooperate to achieve or accomplish results
in the future that they do not know for certain, that they can accomplish, or even know exactly how they will accomplish them.

Strategic Planning is a process designed to unite individuals and teams:

Around common Vision, Mission, and Core Success Factors of the organization

In determining and deciding upon the direction of the organization over the foreseeable future
(given market trends and the organization’s position in such markets, the primary benefits of products
and services for customers, who are the target customers, what are the delivery mechanisms for products and services)

Recognizing the obstacles that must be overcome, the opportunities that exist, and the primary
new skills that must be developed or the technology, or other investments that must be made

Deciding the company goals for the future and specifically next year

Deciding the most significant strategies that will move the organization toward meeting its goals

In a capsule, this strategic planning is designed to create a common view for all staff, of who we are,
where we intend to go, and how we plan to get there, God willing!

Facilitating the planning for an organization is a process of guiding the senior team through activities
to develop and commit to a plan. It is generally true, that commitment leading to excellence in execution
is as important or even more important, than the plan itself. There are specific steps and processes designed
to create commitment and to create a plan that will truly aid the organization in future achievements.

Many organizations know what they want or intend to accomplish and even have a plan to
achieve desired results. However, the discipline and follow-through for profiling performance, analyzing “why,”
and adjusting plans is not present. Often, inconsistent processes for feedback and recognition contribute to
lack of focus.

The organization’s performance management discipline is much easier when a management system or process exists
for management to routinely follow. Even so, most people intuitively resist objective performance targets and
feedback for concern that the information will be used against them… lack of trust in others.

Therefore, the “system” is not the answer. The continuing coaching and support for those using the performance
management system is essential for creating unity and effective, focused, teamwork.

Developing and effectively implementing a system that will be routinely followed and be viewed positively by
management and staff is a tough challenge for leadership and leadership teams, but is the goal of CompassUSA support.

“Engineering for high performance has just as much to do with relationships as with competencies.”

The struggles in business are often brought about by unproductive and even conflicting relationships between leaders, between
team members, or between teams. Truly, establishing and maintaining everyone focused and working on the same mission with a spirit
of intensity, unity and compassion is a daunting challenge for leadership.

The culture of the organization is the window to the organization that allows light to shine on whether or not the organization
is engineered for high performance with productive relationships.

The culture characterizes the way things work (or do not work), what is important or valued, how decisions are made, continuing
irritations or conflicts, what is or is not tolerated, unproductive practices, and the consistency (or inconsistency) of focus.
If you want to change the organization you must change the culture. It is just not as simple as upgrading competency.

A leader who wants to re-engineer for high performance, first has to get the attention of the people and demonstrate seriousness,
openness, and commitment.

Get the Real Picture – Knowing the truth is a superior foundation to just jumping in and making changes; therefore, the
first step is the Cultural Audit. It provides a clear picture of the organization as seen through the eyes of leaders and staff.
Most importantly the audit process identifies obstacles and actions that, when taken, demonstrate to the team and staff that leadership
is listening, values the insights of all, is using good judgment and is making improvements, not just talk! The audit process sends the
message, “we are serious about improving our organization, so be ready to join in.”

Every organization has a culture. The question is whether or not the existing culture is the
one desired…does it function and produce what leadership intends? Is it attractive to employees, customers and vendors?
Does it generate trust among employees that extends to the marketplace?

CompassUSA will work with leaders to identify and define the “preferred” organizational culture, educate the organization
and assess the gap between this preferred culture and what currently exists, and then implement practices to close the gap.

“Engineering for high performance has just as much to do with relationships as with competencies.”

TBusiness literature of today has focused upon the importance of getting the right people; some leaders are hyper-focused
with this notion and keep changing people, attempting to obtain the just the right staff to improve performance and take the
business to the next level.

However, for most successful businesses that have grown up over the last five to twenty-five years, productivity improvement
has more to do with the structure, processes and systems that run the business day-to-day. Such businesses have typically added
onto their early operating techniques and methods of conducting business and have even made significant investments in technology.

After several years of adding customers, staff, and services the productivity of the business stalls or falls. Continued pressure
from management with operating modifications produces marginal improvements. Leadership then turns to cutting staff overhead and
achieves modest productivity improvement.

Even so, the fundamentals of operations have typically not been re-engineered such that fewer people can repeatedly achieve
improved results and accommodate increasing demand.

Updated structure, processes, and systems require doing things differently. However, internal staff typically have some
level of commitment to “the way we do things” and often are resistant to implement changes. Even so, the CEO does not need a
large independent consulting team’s solution, nor need to hire senior staff to make improvements.

A team of the right internal staff guided by one or two re-engineering consultants will identify changes that the internal
team can understand and become committed to implementing, training others, and overseeing till true improved results are achieved
and become routine.

Organizations seeking to maintain or increase their competitive advantage are searching for better
means to control the costs of personnel and yet offer attractive compensation to retain and attract the best employees.

Today, the concept of “pay-for-performance” is attractive to leaders of industry for it offers the possibility of both
control, and attractive rewards for good performing employees. However, effective implementation is often complex and
execution fails or becomes counter productive as rewards are not achieved or the system does not distinguish adequately
between poor, adequate, and great performances.

CompassUSA is dedicated to helping leaders build great performing organizations, noted for a
culture of high character as the foundation for continuing organizational success. CompassUSA provides consulting,
mentoring, and facilitating services, plus tools and processes to help build high character in leaders and their teams,
helping them to implement corresponding best practices of leadership and management, consequently creating a high
performing culture of character.

Tom has been mentoring leaders in manufacturing, software development, professional services, medical management, and food retailing. He audits and assesses organizations to define the current culture and recommend changes. He mentors leaders in adopting and establishing an intentional language of character ethics. He mentors leadership teams in their practice of leadership character ethics as a means of leadership development.

To further support and strengthen senior teams, he facilitates and guides leaders in refining and implementing leadership practices that advance a culture of high character and high performance. He targets practices in the broad areas of planning, performance management, and employee development. He focuses on processes and systems that teach and model individual responsibility, accountability, and teamwork.

Tom Heffner holds a B.S. degree in Industrial Management from Purdue University. He has over thirty years in Management, Leadership, Consulting, Sales/Marketing, and Facilitating.

He has additionally been recognized nationally for his work in “Customer Driven Benchmarking” of transportation maintenance activities for state departments of transportation. Mr. Heffner led the development of a software based analytical consultancy and conducted benchmarking projects for commercial clients in banking, food retailing, and in consumer packaged goods marketing.

PRINCIPLES

Perspective

High performance, agile, cohesive companies/organizations are not created by chance, exceptional talent,
or just hard work. The right culture energizes staff to focus on mission, overcome obstacles and grow to meet
new challenges. It establishes an environment that positively enables and encourages teams and individuals to
excellence, thereby leading to high results. Such a culture attracts and maintains the right staff and certainly
extends past the tenure of the current leadership team.

The culture of an organization is determined, first
of all, by what leaders expect from themselves and what they expect from others. Secondly, the culture is created
and maintained by what leaders do, or do not do, talk about, and do not talk about. In other words, the culture is
defined by how leaders relate to everyone else.

Organizations are typically focused upon the competency
(knowledge and skill) of leaders and the staff. Yet it is the character of the individual leader that most significantly
affects order and trust, the two ingredients that create followers who are free from sub-optimal organizational games
and who are dedicated to achieve the organization’s mission and high performance. In our society, the language of
character ethics is no longer common; however, clearly defined character ethics resonate with the conscience of most
people. They allow individuals to contrast their own or others’ communications and behaviors with true high character
and consequently make improvements.

The structure, processes, and systems of leadership and management
provide the context for character ethics to be demonstrated within an organization. Together, character and right
practices lead to excellence and desired performance. Therefore, to create a high performance culture of character
leaders must work both, to advance their own high character and the character of staff members, and to improve the
leadership/management processes that provide the context for demonstration of the character of all staff as they
strive to achieve results.

Overlooking the Real Issue

Almost all internal business challenges or problems are actually rooted in the character of the people.
However, they are almost always treated as competency issues. Customer complaints, inadequate customer service,
production delays and errors, technology design errors, development delays, poor training, missed deadlines,
even inadequate sales; these are all typically rooted in character, meanwhile, leaders attack such issues
targeting competencies … typically with only marginal improvement.

Leaders are themselves trained
in functional competencies and have gained experience in “what seems to work” but often lack insight into the
dimensions of character and how the character culture of the organization is either a foundation for, at best,
mediocrity, or a foundation for continuing success. Many leaders are challenged when trying to create a high
character culture, and have no confidence that an individual’s character can change.

The consequence
is that they are continually seeking, just the right staff, and too frequently have higher than necessary turnover
and/or lack consistent, excellent results. As an owner, CEO, or President, how do you see your role … rooted in a
particular function, in setting the direction, tone, and insuring that all are following, or in building the right
culture? How is your time allocated? How do you measure your success?

A Leaders Most Important Attribute in 70 Seconds

Welcome to CompassUSA

Call CompassUSA!

614.581.4125

Competency and Character make a leader… but character truly makes the difference!

What is character?

How will it affect our mission?

How will it effect our revenue?

How will it effect our expenses?

Can one’s character really improve?

What leadership best practices bring out the best in an employee’s character?

Isn’t this an issue for HR?

Average Before & After results.

Before - After -

Testimonials

Joe Sanda CEO, Astute Solutions

Tom has done great work for Astute Solutions. He has contributed to our Strategic
Planning, Performance Management and helped to enhance our Culture at Astute Solutions. He was able to get to the
root of tough issue surrounding becoming a high performance organization.

Joe Sanda CEO

Kip Morse | President | CEO, Better Business Bureau of Central Ohio

“ I have had the pleasure of knowing Tom Heffner for nearly 10 years. In that time I have utilized his expertise in strategic planning
and his continuing skills relative to facilitating a restructuring of leadership roles and responsibilities. His commitment to high character leadership development
lead me to a desire to work with him regularly in developing the basis for our Center for Character Ethics. Tom will put focus on that which is most important for
true success-high character Leadership. “

“ Tom has been instrumental in a number of initiatives at Varo Engineers,
including guiding us in the definition and roll-out of our preferred culture program, the definition and
rollout of our character ethics program, and the formalization of our strategic planning process. His hands-on
approach is very different from your typical consultant that wants to stand back and apply one-size-fits-all
solutions. I can honestly say that we would not be as far along today in these initiatives without Tom’s help."